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| Armenian Genocide |
"The president when he was running for office made several promises that he would recognize the Armenian Genocide and deliver justice to the Armenian people. He's failed to do so," said Serouj Aprahamian, executive director of the Armenian Youth Federation western region. "In fact his administration has taken a policy telling Congress not to recognize clear historical facts. So we're here today telling him to keep his promise and deliver justice to Armenians."
Obama is in the Southland for a trio of fundraisers, including two at the sprawling Sony Pictures lot in Culver City.
During his election bid, Obama said he would formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks beginning in 1915. Turkey officially denies that a genocide took place.
In a 2008 campaign stop, Obama said the genocide "is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence."
Since his election, however, he has not used the term "genocide." At a remembrance ceremony of the massacre last year, he called it "one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century."
"In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire," he said.
Aprahamian said he would like the president to stop sidetracking legislation that would make acknowledgement part of U.S. foreign policy, "and pass on the message to Turkey, that as a country, it needs to come to grips with its history and atone for this crime that it committed."
"Turkey makes threats against the U.S. government constantly that if it did anything on this issue and spoke truthfully about it, there would be repercussions for the United States in the region," Aprahamian said. "The government unfortunately cows down to these threats, which is a bad precedent in and of itself. The U.S. bowing to foreign pressure is not something positive for the U.S., and us as Americans we feel that's shameful, especially on a clear human rights issue as genocide."
